Various physiological, pharmacological and biochemical data gathered over the past 25 years have led investigators to suggest a relationship of catecholamines to human hypertension. The Catecholamine Laboratory has developed specific and sensitive biochemical techniques to evaluate human catecholamine metabolism. Defective catecholamine metabolism is associated not only with tumors of the neural crest but in a much more subtle manner with essential hypertension. This project is designed to investigate the original findings in greater depth and to determine the effects upon catecholamine metabolism of drugs used in the treatment of hypertension. In vitro paradigms derived from human tissue will also be used to gain insight as the role of catecholamines in the hypertensive diathesis. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Gitlow, S.E., Dziedzic, L.B., Dziedzic, S.W.: Catecholamine metabolism in neuroblastoma. In: Neuroblastoma, ed. C. Pochedly, Pub. Sci. Group, Acton, Mass., 1976. Miller, R., Stark, D.C.C., and Gitlow, S.E.: Paroxysmal hyperadrenergic state: a case during surgery for intracranial aneurysm. Anaesthesia 31: 743-749, 1976.